“Important!” “Challenging” and “Mutually” : A study of preschool teachers experiences of daily parent cooperation

With a phenomenographic perspective this thesis aims to study preschool teachers experiences of parent cooperation. In order to complete the aim of this study we have formulated three inquiries: What qualifications do the preschool teacher consider contributing to good cooperation? What qualifications do the preschool teacher consider leads to a lack of cooperation? What appears as power relationships in the preschool teacher experiences? According to the curriculum, preschool teacher requires to build trustworthy relations with parents. This appears to be a complex task. With a quantitative method the data in this study consist of seven interviews with preschool teachers that work in preschools. With our phenomenographic approach we were able to find different categories from the preschool teachers experienced narratives. This thesis consists of an inductive study where the preschool teachers narratives determine our theoretical notions. The notions are: Cooperation, communication, attachment relationship, intercultural knowledge and empowerment, the conclusion of the study reveals that power relations exist between parents and preschool teachers, the teachers have a power position because of their knowledge and parents because of their right to choose among preschools. The study shows that the task to please parents needs can be difficult, it also shows that misunderstandings and the increased number of children in the group aggravates the mission to fulfil the curriculum assignment regarding cooperation with parents. The result also shows that creating a trustful relation with mutual understanding of each other differences can lead to improve the cooperation.